Creating Family

The youngest person passed out the presents, one at a time. The next present didn't go out until the present already given was opened.

Alissa shared that in their family they alternated houses each year. At any time after dawn the kids could get up and play with whatever Santa left by the tree, unwrapped. When the adults got up, they made breakfast and everyone ate. After it was all cleaned up the packages were divided up and everyone opened their stash.

We knew what Christmas might look like when we got to the Porter-Williams home the day after Christmas.

Melissa was the youngest of all present, by three days.

We set aside the presents going with us to Alissa Porter and Janet Williams' family. Melissa picked up a package and announced, "To Melissa from Ken and Mark". Mark said, "You don't need to open it! It was intended to be a gag gift!"

Melissa said, "I love gag gifts." She ripped the paper and started to laugh. She ripped the rest of the paper and Kathleen laughed too. When Marion, Kim and I saw it we laughed. Mark saw it and blushed, along with Alissa and Janet. Alissa and Janet were mad. Melissa saw their upset and found the package from "Santa to Kathleen."

She handed it to Kathleen and Kathleen said, "Oh I hope it's a Chatty Cathy doll. Everyone watched her rip the paper and she burst into laughter. It was identical to the one Melissa was holding. "A turkey baster! Someone wants us to get cooking!"

Janet and Alissa relaxed and understood that a turkey baster was an appropriate gag gift for two women lovers. An hour later I was in bed with Kathleen and we were trying to be quiet. I was not using a baster.

Half an hour later we were back in the family room and Kathleen had a fresh splash of China Rain on. I gave her that perfume two years before. I also gave it to Kim, Marion and Melissa. When she walked past Melissa, Melissa got up and went to make an entry in her little calendar book. I smiled and got into a conversation with Mark and Ken.

We adjourned the evening early so we could all be up and on the road early the next day. The presents were stacked by the front door so we could load them after the four sleeping in the motor home were up.

I closed the front door, checked the back door and headed for the master bedroom. As I opened the door into the bedroom I shut off the hallway light. Suddenly the downstairs was totally dark. I reached for the light switch and found it covered with a hand. A feminine "shush" let me know I was to stay quiet. I stepped inside the room and closed the door.

A blindfold went around my head. Hands undressed me. I was guided by four hands to the bed and was helped to kneel beside the bed. Someone got on the bed and I felt a leg on either side of me. I smelled Eau de Arousal directly in front of me. My nose told me it was Marion.

A hand gently guided my face to the waiting, open pussy. I licked and kissed her. When I started to lift my hands two hands grabbed mine and communicated well that I was not to use my hands. I licked some more, sucked her lips and pPauled into her vagina with my tongue.

Whoever was standing behind me lifted Marion's legs and helped open her wider for me. I did everything to tease her, everything except touch her clit. I backed off an inch and said, "Pinch your nipples. Pinch them for me!" I dove back in and she moaned. I sucked her clit and sucked hard! She moaned and I felt her body quiver. Her juices flooded my face and I drank deeply of her gift. She stiffened and then shook all over, making strange noises. The strange noises I had come to love in the few months since she became my wife.

I stood and bent my legs just enough to align my cock to her opening. When I moved forward to penetrate her she moved! She rolled away from me and whoever was her accomplice rolled into the spot she had just vacated. I leaned forward again and my cock found and entered a pussy. On my first stroke I couldn't tell who it was. She was very wet, shaved, and very tight. My mind asked questions of me and the answers were... confusing. Whoever it was, my mind told me must be someone I had already had sex with: Kim, Melissa or Kathleen. It didn't feel like Kim. I couldn't say why, but I didn't believe it was Kim. It wasn't Kathleen. She wasn't shaved. She had asked me to shave her and I had said, maybe tonight. It wasn't Melissa. Melissa wasn't quite as tight as this woman felt. Every bit as wet, slippery and wonderful but this woman was tighter, and quieter. Melissa couldn't stay quiet.

Hands helped me thrust and kept my hands off her body. The hands felt like Marion. She cupped my balls and played with my ass as I fucked whoever-it-was.

My pace and power increased and suddenly she rolled away. Marion took her place and helped me inside her. I still wondered who I had fucked, but my attention focused on Marion and we joined in happiness until we both came.

She removed my blindfold and I looked around the bedroom. No one was there with us! Marion pulled me down next to her and said, "I wanted to give you a special gift, husband. You will never know who shared the bed with us tonight. No woman in this family will ever tell you. Please don't be angry. I gave her to you out of love and I gave you to her out of love."

"I love you too."

She covered us and within minutes we were both asleep. The alarm woke us just as the sky was starting to lighten. We showered, changed the sheets so we could come home to fresh sheets on the bed, dressed and opened the door. Ken stood in the hallway with a cinnamon roll and a mug of coffee for his Mom. I went to the kitchen and got my own.

By dawn we were on the road. Ken and Janet rode with Kim and me in our minivan. We didn't need a map. They guided us to Alissa's parent's home. On the ride Janet and Kim talked. I'm not sure either of them took a breath in the two plus hour drive. They were processing and learning about each other. We men were the subject for about thirty percent of the conversation. Most of that was them talking about us like we weren't there.

We had begun the trip with Kim sitting shotgun and the youngsters in the back. We weren't out of the county before Kim had traded seats with Ken. The female conversation came to us from the back seat. Ken and I exchanged knowing glances periodically and confused glances just about as often.

I went around the block twice when we arrived. Neither Janet or Kim noticed. Ken and I silently laughed. When I parked I left room for the motor home behind me. It arrived within a minute.

Four people came out of the house and greeted us, warmly. Janet introduced Kim and I to both sets of her parents and Alissa introduced Melissa, Marion and Kathleen to both sets of parents. Alissa's Mom hugged Kim and then hugged me. They were the hugs of loving intimacy, not of strangers meeting tentatively.

When Janet's parents hugged us they were just as open and welcoming. Her Mom squeezed my ass as we hugged. We were then hustled inside where it was warmer.

The table was set buffet style with all kinds of snacks and sandwich items. We ate a quick snack or maybe a light brunch. Then we gathered in the big family room where the Christmas tree sat in one corner.

The rest of the day was filled with presents, food and conversation. A lot of the conversation was the getting-to-see-if-we-have-anything-in-common besides our kids conversation. I discovered that Al and I both loved woodworking. He was justifiably proud of the cabinets he had built in their homes. Paul was also into woodworking, but of a different sort. He made jewelry boxes. We discovered that fact when he gave Melissa, Kim, Kathleen and Marion individual boxes as his Christmas gifts. They made use of various exotic woods and the craftsmanship was incredible. We could have spent three days in either wood shop, but to be sociable we didn't.

As it got into evening we sat in the family room and talked as a big family. The conversation turned to the strange relationships we were all in. It felt good to know we weren't alone. The two couples who had stayed in the motor home the night before said they would stay there again. Janet gave her room to Melissa and Kathleen. Alissa gave her room to Marion, Kim and me.

Janet took Melissa and Kathleen to her house and bedroom. It was a short walk across the street. The other young folk left us for the semi-privacy of the motor home. That left seven adults looking at the fire.

"What shall we talk about?" Al asked.

"Jealousy." Kim said.

"Oh, I like you!" Beth said. Beth was Alissa's Mom, Al's wife. She was wearing dark green tights, Uggs boots and a huge ski sweater that covered her ass nicely and hid her other assets. She was about five foot six and maybe about a hundred and twenty-five pounds. Her hair was mostly gray and short.

"I didn't think I had any jealousy in me, but I do. I love Marion and I'm glad she is my co-wife..."

"But sometimes you wish she would take a few days away." Beth added.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Marion asked.

"I don't want to feel it, much less confront it. I don't want you to go away. I love sharing life with you, but... now it's even worse!" She realized where she was headed and stopped.

Paul said, "Nick is having sex with Kathleen too." It wasn't a question. "She wants to have a baby and Nick is the best man they know."

Marion nodded.

"We had the same dilemma and the same discussion. Before our girls found Ken and Mark we thought they would live like Melissa and Kathleen." Paul said.

"We wondered if they would both want to be pregnant at the same time." Beth said.

"But, before we got that far Mark and Ken showed up.

"We should be angry with you!' Marion said.

"Us? Why us?" Al asked.

"If you had done your jobs you would have boys for our girls to marry. Then we wouldn't be looking at our dilemma."

"Oh. We didn't know you were counting on us." Beth said.

I spoke up. "I love all four of the women I live with. I don't see any reason for any of you to be jealous. It's not like I show favoritism or anything like it."

"Oh?" Marion said. "You haven't had the experience we have."

"What do you mean?"

"Sit right there. Beth, can I talk to you in the kitchen?"

Beth got up and led Marion to the kitchen. I looked at Kim and asked, "Any idea what's going on?"

"Yes, I think I do... And, I'm not talking."

When the two women came back into the room Beth handed a note to Al. He opened it, read it, looked at Beth and opened his mouth to speak. Beth cut him off.

"Read it again. Don't talk. Just do what the note asks you to do. I wrote the note so I approve."

He read it again, stood and held his hand out to Marion. She took it and he guided her out of the room. I looked at Beth and asked, "Where are they going?"

"To bed. See, it isn't about favoritism. It's about how you feel knowing someone you love is loving someone else. You know Marion loves you more than she loves Al. You know it and yet part of you has been trained to want to be the Alpha male, top dog. The jealousy isn't that Kim wants Marion gone, it's that she knows your dick is in Marion and her biological response is that it should be in her. Then, you make it worse. You bellow like a bear who just got some as you fill Marion's puss or Kathleen's puss and Kim has to hear you!"

"Jesus! I had no idea."

It was quiet for a while in the family room and we heard Al bellow from somewhere else in the house. I felt the physical reaction in my body to the sound. There was anger, hurt, an impulse to go get Marion from Al and sadness. "I understand better, now."

Less than a minute later Al and Marion walked back in. She and he were fully dressed. They sat down in the same seats they had left. I was still gripped by the feelings and a little confused about how I should respond.

Al spoke. "That was painful. I know it was valuable but I also know it hurt. Nick, we didn't do it. We stayed in the kitchen and then I bellowed like we had screwed. I apologize for the pain, but not for the lesson. I had to learn it too. In your family there is only one alpha male. There are two in this family. It is still a conflict for me when Beth is over across the street. I know Carol is here with me and I love her, love being with her, love sharing sex with her and in the back of my head there is a thought that both of them should be with me."

Carol had been very quiet all day. She was right there in the conversation but didn't say much. Her husband, Paul, was quiet as well. Carol opened her mouth and we listened, well, I listened. Carefully.

"We are either victims of our emotions or we master our emotions enough to be bigger, better, more loving people. When we stopped being just friends all four of us had strong feelings, both positive and negative, about what we were doing. I cried the day after Paul spent his first night with Beth. My emotions told me I lost something. My emotions ignored what I gained. I was loved by Al. I focused on what I felt I had lost."

"Do you still feel the loss?" I asked.

"Sometimes. But I decided I was being a victim. I wasn't a victim. I acted and felt like one. I invented a new way of seeing and feeling about our marriage. The key, for me, is the word sharing. I went to bed with Beth and Al, then with Paul and Beth. When we shared there was no jealousy. I didn't even feel jealousy when Marion took Al in the other room and I believed they would fuck. If they joined, he'd share it with me. There is a philosophy that says we are connected. The space between us is filled with us. So when Al is with Marion or Beth or Kim he's still with me, because he is me. We are connected both emotionally and physically."

"It may take me a while to get my head wrapped around that." I said. Al got up and went to the entertainment center. He found what he was looking for and brought it to me. It was a DVD of a movie called, "MINDWALK."

"Take that home with you. Watch it and let it sink in. It helped all of us come to grips with being this kind of family."

"Ok. Thanks. I'll watch it."

Marion and Kim said, "We'll all watch it."

By eleven we were all in bed. I didn't watch to see who slept with whom in which house. Marion, Kim and I shared one bed. I didn't bellow. I wondered if I ever would bellow again. I love both my wives and knew I had not been aware of what they were feeling. I had not thought very deeply about how they would feel about me having sex with Kathleen and Melissa.

I fell asleep hoping Kathleen was already pregnant. I enjoyed sex with her and now was conflicted about continuing to do it with either of our daughters.

The next day began with a big family breakfast and visits from cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. They wanted to share Christmas with family and to welcome us into the clan. Kathleen snuck us away for a while and Melissa made a note in her calendar. With seven women available for duty in the kitchen and six others that arrived carrying food there was plenty of great food for us to gorge on. We discovered Alissa to be a fantastic baker who had made three kinds of pie for us to enjoy. Janet's specialty was dinner rolls. Beth made a ham. Carol baked a turkey. A cake came with someone. Veggies with someone else. Someone brought guacamole.

Paul and Al showed us their boat and camping gear. We made tentative plans to go camping in May or June. We invited them to come and share a rented cabin at our favorite lake before the camping trip. I loved going to the lake but thought we would probably never use the cabin where Bob died again. Maybe we would stop renting on the south end of the lake and rent somewhere else.

That night all the relatives had gone home, the kids were off doing whatever they were doing and the seven of us who called ourselves the parents were alone in Beth and Al's home.

A fire was going in the fireplace. We were mellow and pretty quiet. We had talked during the day about food, camping, the weather, the drive home and taxes. We had become friends. We looked at the flames dancing almost silently.

Paul spoke quietly, not at anyone directly but just speaking what was on his mind. "Last night after Carol and I were in bed she asked a really good question. I didn't have an answer then and I don't have one now, but I think the question is worth pondering. She asked, How far are we going to take this idea of expanded family?"

"How far?" Beth asked.

"Yes. A year ago we all were living typical American lives in pretty typical American families. Bob died and Nick and Kim expanded their family to include Marion, Ken and Kathleen. Now they have two daughters, two sons and two wives in the family. They are about to add Alissa and Janet to their family." Carol said.

"And, we combined our two typical families into a double marriage. Now we are adding Mark and Ken into our family." Al said. "What do we do with all of you?"

"Houston, we have a problem." Kim said. She smiled and so did most of us. It was a problem but I believed we would handle it.

Kim continued: "We could try to hold each of our different families as normal and keep the conventional boundaries in place for everyone who doesn't live in our houses. We could say we aren't connected. I wonder how long we would be able to believe that."

Carol spoke up. "When I asked Paul the question last night, we were in bed. For years I slept with Paul every night. Now I sleep with Paul and with Al. Since our kids are sleeping together, they have in fact combined our families. Why are we limiting who we sleep with to the people we slept with before we became a family? I wondered why I was with Paul last night. I found the answer to that question. Habit. We hadn't confronted the implications of being an expanded family. If the only choices you've ever had were vanilla and strawberry it's hard to start thinking about mocha almond fudge or chocolate mint chip."

Al asked, "Do we have any ice cream?"

Beth and Carol gave him The Look.

Kim waded into the conversation. "Family or not, I'm not ready to draw bed partners and open myself up to all of us to that depth, no pun intended. I had known Marion for twenty years before Bob died. We shared everything in our lives except men for those twenty years. Opening my heart was already done. Opening my home was easy. Opening our bed was harder, only because of the society conversation. I can share Marion and Nick socially with all of you. And when the love is created, nurtured and the trust is strong, I'm open to sex being a shared thing with all of us."

Beth nodded her head. "I need the relationship first. I'm like Marion and Kim, I spent lots of years building and nurturing the relationship with Carol before I was willing to share Al with her or she was willing to share Paul with me. Someday that relationship may be there with you all, but not yet."

"So, if I understand what I'm hearing, I'm stuck with having just two wives for the rest of this trip?" I asked. I was smiling as I said it.

"JUST?" Marion yelled. She was smiling too.

I started laughing. "Yes! The way this conversation started I thought we would be having an orgy here by the fire. I was hoping Paul and Al would teach me some techniques that would help me be a better lover."

"Oh, Men!" Beth snorted.

Marion laughed. "You don't know Nick very well, yet. He is joking. I don't know Paul or Al very well but I'd wager they are a lot like Nick. He cares for our relationship first. Sex is important and it's fun but making sure Kim and I are taken care of, emotionally and logistically is more important. Taking care of him is easier for us. Feed him, appreciate him and sex him and Nick is a happy camper."

"Paul is like that. I cried when the day after I tore a sweater he came home from work with a new one. Same color, same size. He pays attention. And Al is just as attentive." Carol added.